News

The principal focus of our work in Mid Sussex has continued to relate to the new draft District Plan, the details of which we reported in our July update and by letter to all CPRE members living in Mid Sussex. It is a draft Plan which intends to require new homes to be built at a rate of 876 dwellings p.a., a rate which the District has never consistently achieved before, and it is set to rise still further (to 1,090 dpa) from 2024. The challenge of finding sustainable locations for this massive hike in new building without ruining the prized rural character of Mid Sussex is going to be a formidable one. It will put huge pressure on the District Council (MSDC) to give proper weight to the environmental and countryside protections that planning rules purport to offer when assessing site allocations and planning applications. The role of CPRE has never been more important.

CPRE Sussex attended and spoke at the Examination in Public (EiP) of the new Arun Local Plan in September 2017. We expressed concerns about the lack of consultation, the level of housing proposed and the impact this would have on the local environment and the lack of a coherent strategy for ensuring that infrastructure is put in place at the right time to accommodate this development.

The year 2016 closed with housing developers taking full advantage of Wealden District Council’s perceived lack of 5 year housing land supply. Virtually weekly during 2016, green fields (including within High Weald AONB) were being lost to speculative housing developer applications. CPRE and SWOT (Save Wealden from Overdevelopment Team) were kept busy trying to fend off these applications with robust objections and by attending the Council’s Planning Meetings. However, the Planning Meeting Councillors were often instructed not to object to an application by a developer in case the refusal of the application put the Council into ‘Cost Territory’ should a developer appeal be then forthcoming.

Rother suffers as a planning authority from a permanent malaise – that of being always behind the curve. Yes, it produced a core strategy back in 2014 with what is for the South East a relatively modest housing requirement, but according to the latest planning agendas is down to providing only a 3.1 year housing supply. I do not really want to blame the Council because it is house builders who are not building out permissions granted, but the recent reaction to this supposed crisis is for Rother planners to recommend granting any application that comes in the High Weald AONB, no matter that most of the sites up for approval were categorised by the self-same Rother officers three years ago in their SHLAA as red (i.e. not suitable for whatever reasons to be developed) sites.